Yesterday, NaBloPoMo's Randomiser brought me to Tillerman's blog, Proper Course wherein he was discussing pointless blogs.
He gave two examples, neither of which he has since decided adequately illustrated his point. But he did manage to hurt a complete stranger's feelings with one of his examples so that's something.
He's now wondering if there is a such a thing as a pointless blog or if all blogs are pointless.
But that's not what I want to discuss.
One of his examples was a blog that documents instances where the letter i is dotted when it shouldn't be. Now granted, I don't see much reason to get my panties in a bunch over this. I'm going to assume that when people do this, they know they're doing it. I mean, we're talking about capitalization here. Really straightforward capitalization.
No, my complaint, my pet peeve, my obsession lies with its.
My entry into Tillerman's pointless blog category (other than this one and this one) would be a blog dedicated to calling out all those instances when otherwise literate individuals use it's when they should be using its or its when it should be it's.
I fear, however, that this would be too overwhelming an undertaking. Just googling blogs for it's its gives me 4 errors on the first page, three in blog titles and one where the writer uses its incorrectly and it's correctly in the same sentence.
It makes my head hurt.
Basically, I'm too lazy, busy, dispassionate, unengaged, _______ (fill in the blank) to do more than write a single blog entry about my frustration with the misusage of its and it's.
He gave two examples, neither of which he has since decided adequately illustrated his point. But he did manage to hurt a complete stranger's feelings with one of his examples so that's something.
He's now wondering if there is a such a thing as a pointless blog or if all blogs are pointless.
But that's not what I want to discuss.
One of his examples was a blog that documents instances where the letter i is dotted when it shouldn't be. Now granted, I don't see much reason to get my panties in a bunch over this. I'm going to assume that when people do this, they know they're doing it. I mean, we're talking about capitalization here. Really straightforward capitalization.
No, my complaint, my pet peeve, my obsession lies with its.
My entry into Tillerman's pointless blog category (other than this one and this one) would be a blog dedicated to calling out all those instances when otherwise literate individuals use it's when they should be using its or its when it should be it's.
I fear, however, that this would be too overwhelming an undertaking. Just googling blogs for it's its gives me 4 errors on the first page, three in blog titles and one where the writer uses its incorrectly and it's correctly in the same sentence.
It makes my head hurt.
Basically, I'm too lazy, busy, dispassionate, unengaged, _______ (fill in the blank) to do more than write a single blog entry about my frustration with the misusage of its and it's.
2 comments:
It's not the its that is the problem more so that people not knowing the difference between a lot alot and allot. I spend most of my time in a classroom setting and want to correct everyones' writing, especially at the graduate level where I believe everyone should know how to write correctly. If they do not know the difference between a lot, alot, and allot, then they are doomed (especially when alot is not a word). When I see them write "per say" in their briefs, instead of "per se", I just want to scream. But I am not their professors yet, so I cannot make any corrections on their papers, unless they are members of my team. If you and I were on a team together, at least I would not be the only hated person on the team and there would be another stickler they would hate for correcting the misuse of words. If you do not know the right words, I say, please use the Spell check and Grammar Check which the school provides free of charge; in the real world, there are other sources which people could use, like writing labs to find the answers to the misuse of certain words, like their and there, its and it's, and a lot, alot, allot. I always feel alone because I am "the foreigner" to them, but I do not think this is the reason for my persnickety ways. Look how long I have lived here and how long I have known you?
Yep, I just don't understand why people don't like it when I correct them . . .
Hmmmm.
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